"What the hell do you mean 'they're gone'? You lost a fleet?"— Kaz Falcion to David Vaughan

David Vaughan is a Human male from Dicacia and was the Logistics Officer of the Rebel Squadrons. He was heavily involved in logistics and tactical work for the task force. Vaughan retired in october, 2008.

Contents

Biography

Early life

David Vaughan was born on the remote Mid Rim world of Dicacia on 22:3:31. As he grew up on an Imperially-occupied world far from the main trade routes, the Imperial presence on the planet was not as crushing as on worlds closer to the Core. This resulted in an Imperial presence that the planet's citizens tolerated peacefully, but with dry cynicism.

Vaughan grew up in a middle-class family with both of his parents and a younger sister, and despite living in a garrison town grew into the cultural cynicism of his homeworld regarding governments. The post-Endor period left Imperial forces throughout the galaxy in a state of panic at the realisation that the galactic rebellion had proven itself to be a most dire threat, with the assassination of Emperor Palpatine and the scattering of a major Imperial battle group in the Battle of Endor. This in turn instilled a sense of hysterical paranoia in Imperial occupying forces on many worlds, of which Dicacia was one.

Up until this point in time, while the Rebellion had seemed impotent and distant, the Imperial garrison forces on Dicacia had a fairly hands-off approach to governing the world. While there was no question of the planet's official Imperial allegiance, the Imperial forces overseeing the world tended not to interfere too much with the day to day business of the planetary citizens, beyond legislating and enforcing Imperial Law.

But with the death of the Emperor and the proven threat of galactic rebellion, the Imperial forces on Dicacia began to tighten their grip on the world's citizenry, which led to the persecution of citizens who dared say anything even the slightest bit seditious. The repercussions for this were fairly quickly apparent, as the populace's cynicism regarding authority was viewed as seditious, and there were numerous arrests of the more outspoken citizens.

These incidences increased over time, rather than decrease, and the Imperial actions were in turn instilling anti-Imperial sentiments among the populace. Unfortunately, Vaughan's family were one of the victims of the paranoid Imperial doctrine, being declared traitors to the Empire for daring exercise their long-abolished freedom of speech.

Vaughan, for better or worse, was not home when Imperial stormtroopers stormed his home and arrested his family. An underground group of malcontents had learnt of the arrest warrant issued for Vaughan and his family, and they managed to get to him before the Imperial authorities could. The only way for Vaughan to avoid arrest was to flee from his homeworld. This was no simple task, however, and the underground anti-Imperial group assisted him in his flight from Dicacia.

Fugitive

With an Imperial warrant issued for his arrest, and his family under Imperial arrest presumably pending execution on charges of treason, there was nothing Vaughan could do but escape from his homeworld and try to evade the Empire's wrath. While this would have been extremely difficult during the height of the Empire, in the post-Endor period the Rebellion had spread like wildfire, and there were many havens save or at the least neutral for fugitives of the Empire to run to.

New Republic territory had grown substantially in the fledgling government's infancy, and once escaping from Dicacia with the help of his fellow Dicacians, Vaughan proceeded to flee further into the Outer Rim with a stolen Imperial shuttle.

After a brief time of travelling heedlessly, a patrolling New Republic Nebulon-B Frigate contacted Vaughan aboard the Imperial shuttle and demanded his surrender. He did so, and after a short investigation he was granted asylum by the New Republic. Feeling cast adrift, with the internment of his family and flight from his homeworld, Vaughan tried to seek purpose in his life. After trading in the captured shuttle to the grateful New Republic patrol force, he was granted permission to train at the Task Force Republic Shield Academy in the Greeop Sector.

New Republic service

Before too long, Cadet Vaughan graduated from the Castor Academy above Blerthmore with honours, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and assigned to a TIE Interceptor squadron in the Retribution Starfighter Group in one of the Republic Shield's roving task groups. Despite his youth and relative inexperience, his organisational skills were soon favoured over his flying abilities, and he quickly rose to Executive Officer of his Interceptor squadron, which mostly involved compiling reports and partaking in administrative duties that his Commanding Officer didn't want to do.

The stability that Lieutenant Vaughan had sought after the loss of his family and homeworld seemed to have found him, and within a very short period of time he was effectively on loan to various other starfighter groups in the task force for his administrative mind. Yet despite his achievements and promotion to the rank of captain, he had not properly dealt with the loss of his family, put to death by the Empire as far as he knew.

As time went by, Vaughan lapsed into depression and suffered erratic mood swings. After a particularly gruelling and unfortunate mission where a high-ranking retiring officer was captured on Captain Vaughan's watch, he finally snapped. Although the investigation afterwards yielded very little in the way of facts, it appeared as though Vaughan had suffered some kind of nervous episode, and been involved in some kind of accident.

The ultimate result of this breakdown involved Captain Vaughan's sudden and unauthorised departure from the New Republic military, and he left the territories governed by the Republic Shield far behind, for as far as anyone knew forever.

Civilian life

What followed was a dark time in Vaughan's life. Having lost his family, his home, and now his honour and responsibilities of military service, he roamed various non-Imperial, non-New Republic worlds trying to avoid detection by the Empire or the New Republic. After a while Vaughan received news that he had not ever expected to hear: his homeworld Dicacia had been liberated by the New Republic. The Empire had no hold on the world any more.

The New Republic had been waging a major campaign of conquest and liberation throughout the Mid Rim at this time, yet he had not dared to believe that he might one day be able to return to the land of his birthplace.

After confirming the rumours to be true, he booked a one-way flight back to Dicacia, without any coherent plan, other than the vague notion that if he returned to somewhere familiar he might be able to put himself back together and try to pick up the pieces of his scattered life.

His hopes were exceeded beyond belief, with the discovery during the liberation that many supposedly executed enemies of the Empire on Dicacia had been imprisoned instead of killed. His family were alive, and his reunion with them helped drag him back from the brink of self-destructive lapse he had fallen into.

With his home and family restored to him, Vaughan sought to make the most of his life, grateful for all that had been returned to him. His life as a civilian lasted for quite some time, and was a kind of holiday from the harsher realities of life.

However, even though he did not realise it at the time, his time as a civilian was not to last.

Return to service

Eventually Vaughan was tracked down by New Republic military recruiters, and rather than fighting to remain on the now-peaceful world of Dicacia, he accepted a deal to return to immediate active service in the Republic Shield in return for charges of desertion being dropped against him.

Upon returning to the Greeop Sector, Vaughan was reinstated as a captain in the New Republic Armed Forces and assigned to Dragon Squadron, an X-wing squadron in the Renegade Starfighter Group. It was not long before his administrative skills were utilised again, as he joined the Logistics Office. During this time Vaughan was incredibly busy, as when he was not flying missions with Dragon he was working on projects for Logistics.

Squadron commander

Due to his high-level work in the Logistics Office, Vaughan ended up fast-tracked to higher-level ranks, and eventually received command of Dragon Squadron.

By the time of the Battle of Blerthmore, Vaughan had attained the rank of General, which was an appropriately high rank for the work he was undertaking in the Logistics Office, despite his lack of age and experience.

Although he did not realise it at the time, the Battle of Blerthmore was to be General Vaughan's final combat mission, and he fired his last shots in combat there. Despite leading Dragon Squadron to what would be an eventual victory against the Imperial ambush force, Vaughan himself was knocked out of the fight part-way when a nearby turbolaser grazed his X-wing, disabling his craft.

Logistics Officer

In the weeks after the Blerthmore disaster, Vaughan spent most of his time attempting to help the Republic Shield recover from the thrashing it had suffered at the hands of the Imperial invasion force. Day to day operations of Dragon Squadron fell to his second in command as Vaughan worked with Admiral Trebonious-Astoris and then-General Raven, laying the foundations for what would become the Subterrel Strike Force.

By the time the Subterel Strike Force commenced its campaign to the Subterrel Sector, Vaughan remained in the Greeop Sector to help finalise logistics details for the Greeop Defence Force while still formally in command of Dragon Squadron. However, it was ultimately realised that Vaughan was more of an asset to the Republic Shield behind a desk, co-ordinating supplies and shipping for the task force, than in the cockpit of a fighter. So it was with great reluctance that Vaughan left Dragon Squadron and was officially transferred out of Starfighter Command and into Task Force Command.